Piecing together the past…

Fri 31 Jul 2015

Knowing where you come from is an important factor in many people’s lives – and family history is often the reason that so many people visit archives. In the same way, it is also important for researchers and archivists to know where the…

Barnum and the Birthplace

Fri 17 Jul 2015

On Tuesday this week I did a spot of moonlighting with Paul Taylor, Head of Collections, in Shakespeare’s Birthplace. We appeared for a couple of hours only with a table of archive materials relating to P.T. Barnum and his visit to the Birthplace…

From Bangs to Maggs: Folger Fourth Folios

Fri 10 Jul 2015

In 1889, 10 years after he graduated from Amherst College and 84 years before I did, Henry Folger walked “with fear and trepidation” into the foremost book auction house in America, Bangs and Co. on 91 Fifth Avenue. A large, thick volume caught…

Jonathan Strange and the Friends of English Verse Drama

Tue 16 Jun 2015

‘This other magic, it will not do, sir.’ – Gilbert Norrell ‘But Shakespear’s Magick could not copy’d be, Within that Circle none durst walk but he.’ – John Dryden It’s entirely possible that…